"Christmas Eve"

"I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut, my weakness is, that I care too much, and my scars remind me, that the past is real, I tear my heart open, just to feel..." -Papa Roach- (Scars)

"That's when she said, 'I don't hate you, boy, I just want to save you, while there's still something left to save,' that's when I told her, 'I lvoe you, girl, but I'm not the answer, for the questions that you still have'..." -Rise Against- (Savior)

Good afternoon everyone.  It's shocking not to see "Vegas" up there in the title of the post, isn't it?  : )  I figured that I'd do some catching up on me today, and then I'd return to backtracking to write up my visit to Texas, my poker forays in Las Vegas, etc...  I'm not going to make any promises, but I'm going to ATTEMPT to write at least one blog post a week once football season starts.  I've written so many posts recently summarizing my trip to the desert that banging the keyboard once a week should be a breeze.  We'll see..  I need to give y'all credit for showing up and reading about my visit to Las Vegas.  Barring some unforeseen catastrophe (like the internet completely crashing), the views that this blog receives for August 2019 will be the most in a month for the last FIVE years (since August 2014).  

I teased my trip to Texas, and like I said, I'll write a more detailed summary in the near future.  I hadn't been to the San Marcos/San Antonio area for any substantial length of time for at least five years.  I left my job at the University of Texas four years ago next week, but my Montero Sport had died long before that.  Since I didn't "need" a vehicle, living so close to campus, I didn't buy one (and still haven't, as I keep landing jobs in a fairly close proximity to where I live).  Between that and good friends who are willing to give me a ride every once in a while (or even lend me their car), I'm just saving up my money for something nice (plus it gives me a healthy bankroll for betting football games, which we'll get to shortly)...  : )

Anyway, the Cliff Notes version of my trip to Texas is that the visit was exactly what I needed.  Although I went to Las Vegas for a week and a half in June (read the last seven entries here if you want to catch up on the details of that trip), I always held out hope that I would be able to make a quick trip to Texas before football started.  I have a niece and nephew who graduated from high school in June, and they are both attending college this fall.  I never mailed them any congratulatory money, as I wanted to deliver it in person.  My nephew skipped town to Colorado, as I had wavered on making my visit a complete surprise, and then I finally thought better of that to make sure I had a place to sleep while in Texas.  However, I did get to see my niece, and gave her the "standard" uncle line, "I couldn't find an envelope or a stamp, so I decided to bring this to you myself."  You're accustomed to my amazing sense of humor by now...  : P  Regarding my family and the people in San Marcos, everyone is cool, just like always.  Like I said, I hadn't visited San Marcos, America in at least five years (WAY TOO LONG), but it didn't matter if I was seeing old friends or meeting new Bobcats - everyone was just awesome...  Go figure, we didn't get a family picture at any point (although we do have a picture of Dazie here for you, because you HAVE TO take a snapshot of the cute dog), but I've got one shot with an old friend and one shot with a new friend from the 78666 here for you.       

NOTE:  I have to stop wearing my yellow Texas State shirt if there's a possibility of a photo being taken.  If you follow this blog or you're part of my Facebook world, you've seen this particular shirt several times...  :D

Like I said, we'll have more details on this trip in the future, but for the limited amount of time that I spent in San Marcos, I had a great time.  For those of you I didn't get in touch with before making my way to Texas, again, it was a short and hastily planned trip, and I absolutely plan on visiting again in the future when I have much more time to visit.  I was telling people on the Square that if Texas had casinos and legal sports betting, I'd be living there in a second...  : )  Oh, and the song lyrics at the top of the page are brought to you courtesy of 94.5 The Buzz, a station out of Houston that I listened to during my travels.  Depending on traffic, construction, etc, the drive from Biloxi to San Marcos/San Antonio is about 9-10 hours, and you can tune in The Buzz for at least a quarter of that time due to it's signal strength on either side of Houston.  Somehow I missed knowing the artists for both of these songs during their heyday, but I'm sure that I'd heard both of them, and I had the volume cranked up as I cruised along I-10...

"Christmas Eve..."  Believe it or not boys and girls, we have REAL FOOTBALL TOMORROW!!!  The reason that I'm not working today is that my schedule is being realigned to its fall/winter version, where I work on the weekends.  Most of you already know that I would rather work on the weekends if it means that I can have football.  We have two college games to kick off the meaningful football tomorrow, and the fun will last until February 2nd this season, when the Super Bowl is played in Miami.  Again, the poker is coming to you in a future blog entry, but with the variance that poker brings, I really like my chances better when I bet on football games right now.  Lucky for me that it starts tomorrow I guess, huh?  : )  If you weren't aware, we've got Florida vs. Miami from Orlando at 6:00 p.m. CST, followed by Arizona at Hawaii starting at 9:30 p.m. CST tomorrow.  The schedule will start ramping up on Thursday, including Texas State at Texas A&M, and the NCAA will offer a jam-packed schedule next weekend.  The first NFL game is Thursday, September 5th.

That's all for now boys and girls,  Due to this schedule readjustment, I only have one day off before working five more in a row, so I probably ought to get some chores done today.  Have a great football weekend and I'll see you soon!